We Can Completely Eliminate Malaria, But Should We?

Malaria is one of the most deadly diseases to ever plague humanity. Just last year alone, malaria caused almost half a million deaths, and that extremely high number is lower than previous years; it used to be worse. For decades, scientists have been searching for a way to eliminate malaria, and they may finally have found one. But should we use it?

As YouTuber Kurzgesagt explains, Malaria is caused by a parasitic organism called a Plasmodium. These parasites are transmitted from person to person through mosquitoes. A few years ago, scientists discovered a technology, called CRISPR, that enables direct editing of an organism's genome, letting humans insert genes directly into other animals like mosquitoes with incredible ease.

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Many people have proposed using this technology to make mosquitoes immune to the malaria parasites. If CRISPR was used to insert a gene that could kill the Plasmodium, then mosquitoes wouldn't transmit malaria to humans. It's important to note that this isn't some hypothetical future technology; we could do this tomorrow if we wanted to.

So why don't we? Many people are understandably cautious; CRISPR was only invented a few years ago and it's still largely untested. There may be hidden side effects that we don't know about. Plus, editing the genome of an entire species has never been done before, and there could be unintended ecological consequences that we aren't prepared for. Most importantly, it's not reversible. Any changes we make to the mosquito population are permanent, whether we want them or not.

Still, the benefits might be worth the risk. Malaria is one of the most deadly diseases in the world, and many other diseases like Zika could also be eliminated using this method. At the very least, we should be cautious, but the unique threat of malaria may require action despite the risks.